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date: 11 November 2024

Leaders and Foreign Policy: Surveying the Evidencelocked

Leaders and Foreign Policy: Surveying the Evidencelocked

  • Stephen Benedict DysonStephen Benedict DysonDepartment of Political Science, University of Connecticut
  • , and Thomas BriggsThomas BriggsDepartment of Political Science, University of Connecticut

Summary

Political Science accounts of international politics downplay the role of political leaders, and a survey of major journals reveals that fewer than 3% of all articles focus on leaders. This is in stark contrast to public discourse about politics, where leadership influence over events is regarded as a given.

This article suggests that, at a minimum, leaders occupy a space in fully specified chains of causality as the aggregators of material and ideational forces, and the transmitters of those forces into authoritative political action. Further, on occasion a more important role is played by the leader: as a crucial causal variable aggregating material and ideational energies in an idiosyncratic fashion and thereby shaping decisions and outcomes.

The majority of the article is devoted to surveying the comparatively small literature on political leaders within International Relations scholarship. The article concludes by inviting our colleagues to be receptive to the idiosyncrasies, as well as the regularities, of statespersonship.

Subjects

  • Political Behavior
  • Political Psychology
  • World Politics

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